March 2, 2023
Shawnee State University will celebrate the Grand Opening of its newly renovated Kricker Innovation Hub, located on the corner of 3rd and Chillicothe Streets, on Thursday, Mar. 9. A public Open House will begin at 12 p.m. with a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony to be held at 2 p.m. Tours of the new building and demonstrations will be held throughout the day.
The Kricker Innovation Hub is part of revitalization efforts and plans for an Arts & Innovation District connected to Shawnee State.
“By strengthening the connection between our campus and the downtown area, and making critical resources more accessible to our community, we plan to facilitate increased activity and development,” SSU President Jeff Bauer said. “This has been one of our goals for quite some time and the completion of this ‘anchor’ to the Arts & Innovation District is just the beginning.”
The $4 million investment in the 27,000 square-foot facility began in 2020 and is the first project of its kind for Shawnee State.
“We’ve converted a 129-year-old building into a modern, high-tech facility where history, innovation, entrepreneurship and economic development all merge,” Eric Braun, SSU Vice President for Advancement & Enrollment Management, said. “It’s a facility unlike any we have constructed.”
Braun said that Dr. Andrew Feight, SSU professor of history, and students with SSU’s digital history lab shared articles about the building’s original owners, Angus Sanford, Will H. Varner and James H. Varner. In 1894, Sanford, Varner & Co. unveiled the “modern factory” for their tailor-made men’s and children’s clothing design line.
Today, the Kricker Innovation Hub’s mission is to help businesses and entrepreneurs grow and bring their ideas to tomorrow’s market. The facility and its resources will help develop business ideas while providing connections with experts and mentors in the region.
During renovation, the Kricker Innovation Hub provided signature programming, such as the Ignite Portsmouth Entrepreneurship Boot Camp and Startup Weekend Portsmouth, while also hosting the annual Glockner Dare to Dream High School Business Pitch Competition. With further support from the Economic Development Administration, the Kricker Innovation Hub will continue these programs and launch a digital and immersive technology accelerator in the new facility.
“We’re excited to grow the programs we’ve developed over the past few years with the grand opening of the Kricker Innovation Hub,” SSU Director of the Kricker Innovation Hub, David Kilroy said. “As a symbol for creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation in southern Ohio, the facility is a community of people that dream big.”
A regional leader in entrepreneurship and innovation, learn more about the Kricker Innovation Hub by visiting ssuinnovation.com.